Larry Abrams: Giving Underserved Kids Books to Support Academic Achievement
The Big Idea:
● Larry Abrams is using his passion for reading to serve and empower thousands of kids and help them get on the right academic track. Larry started BookSmiles, a Pennsauken-based nonprofit that has given more than one million books away to help ensure families and children in underserved communities have access to high-quality reading material.
● Larry is helping children living in book deserts build robust libraries and get an early start on the path to academic achievement. Now one of the largest book distribution nonprofits in the nation, BookSmiles has delivered more than 2,000,000 books to kids in need since 2017.
Background:
● Reading for pleasure can help counteract poorer brain development for children living in poverty. The benefits of good brain health for children include better mental health, cognition, and educational attainment throughout life.
● A book desert is an area where reading materials are difficult to obtain. According to the U.S. Department of Education, up to 61% of low-income families do not have any books for their kids at home.
● Larry had a great idea born from his passion for reading – instead of used children's books in book-rich areas going to landfills or pulpers, divert those millions of books to kids who otherwise wouldn’t have them. Larry spent two years working hard to get BookSmiles off the ground, running the nonprofit out of his garage while calling churches, synagogues, youth groups, and schools for used books.
● The BookSmiles team focuses on providing students and their younger siblings with high-quality books to support literacy skills at an early age. In September 2022, the BookSmiles Book Bank moved to its current 4,300 sq. ft. location in Pennsauken where it will soon be possible to process and distribute 1,000,000 used children's books each year.
Fun Fact:
The average teacher spends $478 dollars out of pocket on school supplies, including books for classroom libraries.
Their Take:
“There continues to be an inequality of access to books in our country. By enabling book-rich areas to get books into the hands of kids in underserved areas is a beautiful thing and can transform those kids’ lives.”
